I gave up drinking cola with caffeine and now mostly drink 7-up with
artificial sweeteners (you end up getting a sweet tooth late in the day).
I used to guzzle mountain dew in the morning when I worked and I found if I
didn't my mind would be a little cloudy until I did so I gave it up.
Yes, you do lose a bunch of weight when switching to diet pop, but you gain
it back slowly when you get a craving for sweets (you body doesn'y like to
be fooled by fake sweetener).
Look at the contents of anything made in the US (toothpaste, tomatoe sause,
packaged food, etc), they all have sweetener in it.
I used to love orange crush back when it was in bottles and had sugar. Even
with the lined aluminum cans you still get a slight metalic taste.